Refund Policy
This Refund Policy is effective as of April 21, 2010, and was last updated on December 14, 2021. This policy may be updated from time to time, and we recommend users check it regularly.
If you have any questions about this Refund Policy, please contact us at hello@leanpub.com.
1. Refund Policy Overview
We are proud of our refund policy. We consider it a core Leanpub value.
Ruboss is proud to offer all Users who purchase Leanpub Products “The Leanpub Happiness Guarantee” (the “Happiness Guarantee”). Within 60 days of a purchase, you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, unless we determine that you are or have been abusing the refund policy. (There is another exception, where a Course may no longer be available for a refund, even if 60 days have not elapsed; see section 3 below).
One of the main reasons we have a generous refund policy is that many Leanpub books are written in-progress. 60 days should hopefully be enough to see if an author of an in-progress book is making the progress you expect of them. If they are not making the progress you expect, then you can get a refund, and potentially buy the book again at a later time, when it is complete.
This is an honour system: there is no DRM or anti-circumvention or other copy-control system used on the purchase of any downloadable Leanpub Product. We believe that if we take the risk out of purchasing, we will improve User happiness, which should lead to more readers and thus more Author happiness.
In general, it can take from three to five business days to receive a refund, after requesting the refund. However, it can sometimes take longer, or it can be nearly immediate, depending on the method of payment.
2. Abuse of the Refund Policy and Account Suspension
When readers abuse the Happiness Guarantee, that leads to unhappiness for Leanpub authors, and it will not be tolerated.
Abusing the Happiness Guarantee means, for example, buying books and immediately requesting refunds on all of them, or continually buying books, downloading them, and requesting refunds each time.
If we determine that a User is abusing the Happiness Guarantee, we may immediately, and without warning or communication, suspend their account. We also reserve the right to not issue to them any more refunds, after we have made our determination of suspected abuse. Ruboss also reserves the right to block future purchases from any User or Users deemed to have potentially abused our refund policy, even if they create a new Leanpub account or new Leanpub accounts. If we discover a pattern to the abuse, we may also pre-emptively suspend accounts suspected to be part of the pattern of abuse.
3. Special Rules for Refunds of Courses
Under certain circumstances, purchases of Courses may not be refunded, even if the normal 60-day period for requesting a refund has not expired. These special circumstances exist because of the unique nature of Courses and the reasons people take them, and Leanpub’s intention to keep the situation fair for Course Authors.
Circumstances which preclude the refund of a Course within 60 days of purchase include the following:
- Cases where the learner has failed the last or sole available course attempt
- Cases where the learner has generated a certificate
Courses provided by Universities which partner with Leanpub may have additional terms.
4. No Partial Refunds
We do not issue partial refunds. For example, if you buy a Book, Course, or Bundle, and later discover it for sale at a discount, we cannot refund your purchase to make up for the difference between the discounted price you have discovered, and the price you paid for the Book.
5. Chargebacks
If you file a chargeback in association with a purchase, you cannot request a refund for that purchase. Because we try to make it easy to get a refund for any purchase, we treat all chargebacks as signs of potential fraud, and we typically block the User associated with the chargeback from making any future purchases, in order to protect them from further unauthorized payments or other suspicious activity.